The lighting down the bottom of the Kindle in an ATROCIOUS! To say that it's uneven is an understatement, it's CLEARLY much brighter in the middle and very dark on the right. There are also a few hot light points across the screen. There is also a bluish patch in the top right of the display.

After downloading a few more books to investigate the Kindle further, it suddenly froze in the middle of a book. Had to force turn off the Kindle. Now when I turn it on it's just all white. The strange thing is, when I close it with the case on, the screen savers appear, but when I open the screen savers just stay on and the kindle does nothing.

Going to investigate this further. What a complete waste if it's broken, going to spend more on shipping sending the old one back and getting the new one here than the value of the item.

When I first read about people's issue's with the product, I assured myself that it can't be that wide spread, and people were exaggerating the issue. I was clearly mistaken.

SubElement : that looks bad. There really is a problem with your LEDs, you need a replacement.

edited to say : ok, now I read your posts so I understand it came with a forwarder. Some time ago, a friend of mine had a KK forwarded to her in Australia, it was broken on arrival. She called CS and they stroke a deal : she paid for the sending back but they organised a replacement for her and sent it to her directly for free without her having to go through the forwarder again. I thought that was a good arrangement.

I have had a KPW on order from Amazon since Oct 2.. I left it up and was hoping BB would have one sooner.. and guess what.. BB had one in stock on Sunday Oct 21.. so I went down and bought one.. I got home and got a notification that my KPW had been shipped.. the one from BB was Bad.. so I returned it and received mine today from Amazon.. the one I got today was a totally different Animal.. in the Dark awesome.. Big Difference.. I think I got one of the new BATCHES.. Whew.. Keeper.. hardly any Blotches at bottom.. no Pink etc.. nothing that would bother me or entice me to send it back..
Doug

SubElement : that looks bad. There really is a problem with your LEDs, you need a replacement.

edited to say : ok, now I read your posts so I understand it came with a forwarder. Some time ago, a friend of mine had a KK forwarded to her in Australia, it was broken on arrival. She called CS and they stroke a deal : she paid for the sending back but they organised a replacement for her and sent it to her directly for free without her having to go through the forwarder again. I thought that was a good arrangement.

I've already spoken to Kindle support, and I unfortunately have to go through the hoops with their technical department. I'm not sure what they could possibly do without the unit in front of them.

They've also stated that they will only ship the replacement to my US address...

I just received a 3G w/o SO in the mail yesterday, I had ordered it so long ago..

If there was a "new batch", I think I got one of them.. mine is fantastic. I was very worried monitoring this forum the past month while I waited.

The dark/light variations at the bottom of the screen are very faint on mine, they are noticeable in certain lighting conditions but they don't extend very far up the page and they disappear as soon as you start reading.

I think I may be able to detect an ever so slight change in color temperature in the upper right corner, but again it is so fleeting and you only see it when the lighting is just right, that it's hard to tell if I'm imagining it. This is really only noticeable in a pitch black room with the light set to the 3-6 range. (That is where I seemed to settle on reading in bed.)

It just looks absolutely fantastic in most light though. I have a Nook Glo as well, and there is no comparison, the contrast on the PW is considerably better. It's like looking at an original eInk screen vs. a Pearl screen. The black is BLACK on the PW. The entire package is just so well thought out with the leather cover, the way the UI works, etc.. I am very happy. (Past history, I had a DX-G, then I got the Nook Glo and sold the DX-G, now I have the PW. I also have several smartphones and tablets, I'm a software engineer and somewhat of a gadget hound.) At this point I wish I had kept the DX-G and then I'd be selling the Nook Glow, but the PW is so sharp and usable with small fonts that I think it will be quite good for technical material.

I may take some comparison photos, I have a very nice DSLR & studio lighting equipment and could do some pretty decent tests.. A lot of this could be expectations though, maybe someone else would think I have a "bad" one. To me it looks great. I did not expect it to look like my Galaxy S3 screen when reading in pitch black darkness.

I did clean the screen with a "Klear Screen Wipe" first thing when I got it just in case there was some possibility any chemicals were left on it from manufacturing.. I don't think it had any effect.

I have had a KPW on order from Amazon since Oct 2... received mine today from Amazon.. the one I got today was a totally different Animal.. in the Dark awesome.. Big Difference.. I think I got one of the new BATCHES.. Whew.. Keeper.. hardly any Blotches at bottom.. no Pink etc.. nothing that would bother me or entice me to send it back..
Doug

Glad to hear you got a good one, Doug. Been following your posts here the past week. I just received my PW yesterday (also ordered on Oct 2nd) and am loving it. Don't really see any imperfections at all and the "spotlight/billboard" lights at the bottom don't bother me at all.

I felt a bit guilty getting a PW since we also have an iPad. But the iPad was emitting too much light for my wife at night, plus it was awkward to hold, and it had another problem in not being able to read in the sunshine. After having the PW for a day I feel completely justified in getting this one.